Massive Cleveland Clinic cuts should be minimal in South Florida

Ohio-based Cleveland Clinic, which has a hospital in Weston and clinic in West Palm Beach, is offering voluntary early retirement packages to 3,000 employees systemwide.

Cleveland Clinic said it plans to trim $330 million, or 5-to-6 percent of its budget, mostly as a result of lower reimbursements from Medicare and private insurers, the hospital corporation says.

But its South Florida operations, which employ more than 2,200 people, are likely to be less affected because most employees are involved with patient care, said spokeswoman Eileen Sheil. The Cleveland hospital has more employees near retirement age and in areas such as research, she said.

Florida has "a much leaner operation," Sheil said.

Before Cleveland Clinic resorts to layoffs, she said it would look at not filling some vacant positions.

Sheil said changing health-care regulations are driving the job cuts. "Of the $330 million, about half is attributed to the Affordable Care Act," she said.

Cleveland Clinic is anticipating that those who sign up for health insurance under the ACA will choose lower coverage, high-deductible plans. When those patients land in the hospital, those patients are often unable to meet their high deductibles.

"We only collect about half of those deductibles," Sheil said.

Cleveland Clinic's plan to reduce its headcount by 3,000 accounted for more than one-third of health care cuts in September, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a global consultancy that tracks planned job cuts.